Right to vote under attack in America

For every voter that Obama's team has added to voter registration rolls, two have been removed. For example, in Colorado, which has seen tremendous growth these past four years, there's actually 200,000 FEWER voters on the rolls today than there were four years ago. As usual, you don't hear anything about this from the U.S. media, which is terrified of the whole subject of vote suppression and fraud.

I'm thinking that we need to re-think this whole voter registration system that was voted into law in 2002. It seems too fragile and too easily subject to the whims of bureaucrats. I have a right to vote, and that right to vote should not be subject to the whims of some bureaucrat who decides whether I'm allowed to exercise that right or not. If I show up at the voting place with proof of citizenship and proof of address, I should be allowed to vote, regardless of whether some bureaucrat has me on a list or not (dip my thumb in purple ink if I'm not on the list to make sure I don't show up elsewhere and double-vote, but no big deal there). I don't need permission from a bureaucrat to exercise my right to free speech. I don't need permission from a bureaucrat to exercise my right to freely practice my religion. Why do I need permission from a bureaucrat to exercise my right to vote?

But wait, I forget, we need to build this big bureaucracy around voting because, uhm, why? Were we less free in the 1800's, when there was no such thing as voter registration? Somehow I doubt it... but this big bureaucracy built up around voting appears to be one Big Government program that Republicans love, so... (shrug).

-- Badtux the Voting Penguin